How to make a planter from an old wood chair

I saw an old wood chair at my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and I thought: DIY planter!

I love an excuse to plant flowers, and I love to create planters out of discarded furniture or scraps of wood leftover from another project.

So when I saw a charming old wood chair, I thought of how I could transform it into a planter.

How to make a planter from a wood chair

The first step in making this planter is selecting the right chair. While it’s helpful that the wood material is in excellent shape, it’s not important if the chair is wobbly, missing a leg, or has a chipped finish. The goal is to find a wood chair that is an excellent source of material, not to find an excellent chair.

Dismantle the chair.

After assessing the chair, I dismantled the wood chair using one of my favorite DIY tools, Rockwell BladeRunner. Methodically and carefully, I cut the legs and chair back from the seat. All of the pieces will be used to reconstruct a new form.

Sand, prime, and paint.

After all of the pieces were cut and laid out, it’s time to rejuvenate the material. I sanded, primed and painted the pieces a beautiful greenish-blue color from Krylon.

Assemble the planter.

Once all of the pieces were dry, I glued and screwed the planter together with Gorilla Glue and Spax screws. Then, I added some Gorilla Glue tape to the inside of the planter for waterproofing it, and made a few hole in the bottom for drainage.

Plant the plants.

When the planter’s interior was ready, I added soil and planted flowers from my local garden center. After the flowers were done, I planted seeds from Burpee and now I get to enjoy this pretty site every day!

Click here to read more about this DIY planter by Theresa on Habitat.org. 

About the Author